


Just Please Don’t Cry

by highwayKing



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Non-Graphic Description of Injury, Other characters only mentioned, inspired by a tumblr post, might have some spelling errors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 16:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7764697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highwayKing/pseuds/highwayKing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This whole nonsense was just exactly what Stan needed in his life. The sky broke and reality stood on its head, a perfectly crazy way to end a perfectly crazy summer if they ask him.</p><p>He had the slight feeling that his brother’s hand is in this, but that was the last thing he needed to worry about. Right now his first concern was to find his family and return them to the safety of the shack that seemed to have some sort of magic barrier around it. They can worry about everything else after that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Please Don’t Cry

**Author's Note:**

> Actually not as sad as the title might suggest. Made this a while back inspired by a post here on tumblr that I can't find at the moment.
> 
> Takes place during Weirdmagedon and plays with the idea of Stan running around town finding people. Although that theory had been busted I still like the concept so here is this: Stan takes care of McGucket’s injuries. 
> 
> Possible trigger warning: description of injury, although it’s not not graphic, but I thought I just let you all know. 
> 
> It was also posted on my tumblr page: http://highway-king.tumblr.com/

This whole nonsense was just exactly what Stan needed in his life. The sky broke and reality stood on its head, a perfectly crazy way to end a perfectly crazy summer if they ask him.

He had the slight feeling that his brother’s hand is in this, but that was the last thing he needed to worry about. Right now his first concern was to find his family and return them to the safety of the shack that seemed to have some sort of magic barrier around it. They can worry about everything else after that.

Unfortunately it seemed that luck wasn’t really on his side. His searches mostly ended in failure as he couldn’t seem to find anyone. After he had witnessed Mayor Tyler turning to stone and being carried away by those eyebat like thing, he was rightfully horrified. He also searched with more determination then before. He had to get to his family faster than those monsters.

The first victory came when he found Candy and Grenda. Although that almost ended poorly as the girls thought he was a monster in the dim light and nearly ended him with a good swing of a baseball bat. But Stan couldn’t deny that he was happy to see the little rascals and scooped the girls up into a hug. They were glad to finally meet a person they knew who hadn’t gone crazy because of all the destruction that was going on.

Next the Northwest girl turned up, Pacifica was her name as Candy informed him.

While Stan wasn’t fond of the stuck up rich family he wasn’t going to leave a kid out in the apocalypse so he took all three of them back to the shack and tasked them with the important mission of protecting the place from looters.

Stan doubted that anyone in Gravity Falls would stoop so low, but it kept the girls out of harm’s way so it was all good. 

The next addition to the shack was a little stranger than that.

Stan found a monster bear in the forest that had way too many heads and arms and everything. Surprisingly it – he could talk. He called himself the Multibear and he was in a pretty bad shape. Stan couldn’t leave him in the forest with good conscience so he helped him back to the shack and patched him up, he even lend him his eye patch to cover up a lost eye on his main head.

After Multibear many other odd balls had turned up at the shack that had been officially converted to a shelter in less than a night. They had gnomes, random people Stan had found in town, a Manotaur – whatever that was – five pop singers and many others.

Stan by that time was pretty used to find strange things. And, just like luck would have it, he came across the local crackpot instead of the kids or Ford.

Old man McGucket was hanging around his little hut on the junkyard crying after his ‘raccoon wife’. Poor guy looked more beaten up then the rest of the rag tag team Stan managed to scoop together. He was cautious to approach the man. Stan’s past encounters with the loon were really awkward and sometimes more than uncomfortable. But this time decision was taken out of Stan’s hand as McGucket noticed him faster and ran up to him asking him if he had seen a pretty raccoon gal or more importantly his son.

That was the worst part of finding someone. They always asked about their loved ones, if he had seen them. Stan knew the feeling, he had been looking for his own family for two days now and there was no sign of them.

With a lot of work he managed to calm down the old man and managed to coax him back to the shack with promises of finding his son.

Stan couldn’t say that he didn’t pity McGucket. He was just as terrified as everyone else so there was no reason why he shouldn’t welcome him in his home. But he had to do something about the man’s injuries or else he might not make it out alive.

The moment they stepped past the porch of the shack Stan had McGucket sit on a chair in the kitchen where Stan had set up a makeshift nurse room. He knelt before him to have a better look on him.

The first thing he needed to take care of was the old man’s arm. As far as he could remember Stan had always seen a cast over that arm, he had no idea how old the thing was by now. But it must have saved the little guy because it looked like something big had caught him and thorn half of it off. The skin under the cast was ugly red, covered in blisters and he could see two claw marks tearing up the skin.

McGucket remained oddly quiet while Stan took of the remains of the cast revealing more blistering skin. He worked very carefully to not cause more harm.

Stan was grateful that the old man wasn’t yammering away about nonsenses, but his silence only broken by occasional hisses started to unsettle him. He could practically feel the man’s gaze on the top of his head. He did his best to ignore it and focus on his work.

Time to time someone wondered into the kitchen, but they quickly left when they saw that he was treating a ‘patient’. Whether it was because they were squeamish of something else Stan was glad that no one came bothering him while he was occupied. But that silence was something he needed to do something about.

Stan cleared his throat awkwardly. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked, but he got no answer. He decided not to dwell on it and move on, finish as fast as he could. Stan reached for the antiseptic in the first aid box. “Just…tell me if this hurts, ‘kay?”

He had to admit, after all the wounds he had patched in his life Stan could never get used to the sight of blood. There was always something in it that made him wince and have his hands go numb.  Not numb enough to hinder him, but still. He was glad when he could finally wrap the fresh gauze on the injury. He tied it neatly and finally looked up to check on the guy, he had been awfully quiet and it started to worry Stan.

But what he saw nearly freaked him out.

McGucket’s eyes were filled to the brim with tears and it seemed that he couldn’t hold it back any longer.

Stan nearly panicked. Only one idea came to his mind that could be the cause of McGucket’s tears. Maybe he hadn’t paid enough attention and had accidentally hurt the old man. Maybe he tied the gauze too tight or maybe he is horrible at this and caused more harm than good.

“Hey, hey! What’s with the waterworks? Am I hurting you?”

He damn near panicked when McGucket shook his head in denial but instead he started to cry for real now.

Stan was at a loss of what to do. That was so typical. He could take whatever craziness this town could throw at him, he can breeze through the apocalypse, no problem, but a crying little hillbilly was too much to handle.

“Oh, no… don’t – don’t cry… just please don’t...” he stumbled over his words looking to the door for anyone to ask help from.

“Sorry, Mr. Pines,” McGucket said so quietly that Stan almost couldn’t catch it. “It’s just… it’s nice, that’s all.”

Stan raised an eyebrow. “Uh? Nice?”

That has to be the stupidest thing that the loony had said thus far. The apocalypse is raging outside, the world they have known probably came to an end, their families were missing and he was covered in bruises and scrapes head to toe. Stan couldn’t find anything remotely pleasant in this. And if it was so nice, then why was he crying. The picture and the sound just didn’t match.

McGucket looked at him through watery eyes. “To-to be treated like a human bein’ again…like…like someone sane. It’s nice.”

Stan sat back on the ground, almost slumping into himself. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was it really this horrible for McGucket? If it was he never showed it. Every time he had seen him he was usually up to his own little high jinxes. But it was true that nor him nor the other’s paid too much attention to the old crackpot. Right, crackpot. Now he feels significantly worse, awful even. But that was how he knew McGucket. How everyone knew him. A shame, but what was he too do?

But just then an idea came to his mind. “Say, what’s your name?”

McGucket rubbed the tears out of his eyes the best way he could. He looked up at Stan with a confused expression. “What da ya mean?”

“I only know you as ‘Old man McGucket’,” he explained. “It’s hard to believe that that’s your real name so I’m asking it now.”

A tiny smile appeared on his face. “Fiddleford.”

“Fiddleford, huh?” it was Stan’s turn to smile now. “That’s an unusual name. I like it, it suits you.”

McG- Fiddleford offered him the brightest tear stained smile that Stan had ever seen. The sight made him stumble for words. When he couldn’t find anything to say he decided that it was time to bail. He stood up rubbing his neck nervously and looked everywhere but the little man on the chair before him who was still beaming at him.

“Uh, ya know… I should, probably uh… check up on everyone, yeah, see how they are doing and all,” Stan left the kitchen in a hurry, he didn’t even dear to look at the newest member of the shack.

McGucket remained on his place swinging his shoeless feet back and forth smiling for himself with a slight red tint to his cheeks.


End file.
